The Government has agreed with the results of research carried out by Historic England and has listed a number of inter-war pubs on the grounds the buildings represent the best surviving examples of a building type “which is stitched into the fabric of English culture”.
The pubs, most listed at Grade II and one upgraded to II*, are local landmarks. Their design was shaped by the “improved pub” movement that followed the First World War.
Between 1918 and 1939 breweries across the country rebuilt thousands of pubs, in the process they created bigger and better pubs with restaurants, gardens and community meeting spaces. These were designed to attract more respectable customers and appeal to families and particularly women.
The listed pubs include:
- The Black Horse, Birmingham, built 1929-30, upgraded to Grade II*
- The Berkeley Hotel, Scunthorpe, built late 1930s
- The Daylight Inn, Petts Wood, built 1935
- The Duke William, Stoke on Trent, built 1929
- The Wheatsheaf, Merseyside, built in 1938
- The Gatehouse, Norwich, built 1934
- The Brookhill Tavern, Birmingham, built 1927-28
- The White Hart, Grays, Essex, built 1938
- Biggin Hall Hotel, Coventry, built 1923
- The Angel, Hayes, Middlesex, built 1926
Around 3,000 pubs were built during the inter-war years. “They are now a sadly overlooked and threatened building type, with very few surviving today,” said Historic England.
One of the pubs earmarked for listing through this project was the Carlton Tavern in Kilburn, London, recently demolished without warning before it could be protected.
Several of the newly listed pubs were built by Truman’s Brewery, based in east London. These include the Royal Oak, on the doorstep of the famous Columbia Road Flower market in the capital’s Hoxton. It is called an “early pub” because it serves market traders from 9am on Sundays. It is also a sought-after filming location.
Read the Historic England news article
Search the full National Heritage List for England
Roger Milne
Developer Miller Homes has lost its appeal over a residential development of 80 homes at the Northamptonshire hill-top village of West Haddon because the outline proposals were not sustainable in environmental terms and – significantly – the project risked undermining the relevant neighbourhood plan.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has agreed with the planning inspector who held the recovered appeal hearing that the scheme, which included new access and open space, landscaping and drainage infrastructure, should be refused.
Daventry District Council members had refused the scheme, against the advice of officials, after deciding the proposals would affect open land, and would result in a visually intrusive form of development which would adversely affect the local landscape. The appeal site comprises around 3.5 hectares of managed and grazed grassland located on an elevated ridge on the north western side of West Haddon
The inspector concluded that the proposed development would have a detrimental effect on the form and setting of the village and would be detrimental to the character and appearance of the landscape. In both respects these breached local development plan policies. Clark concurred.
Clark agreed with the inspector and concluded that the scheme would undermine the emerging West Haddon Neighbourhood Development Plan.
Clark’s decision letter acknowledged that scheme would mean the provision of 36 affordable homes, the payment of New Homes Bonus and a net gain for biodiversity.
However, those benefits, said Clark, were “significantly and demonstrably outweighed by [the scheme’s] adverse effects.”
Read the full decision letter on Gov.uk
View details of the West Haddon Neighbourhood Plan
Roger Milne
First Welsh LDO introduced
Newport City Council has become the first planning authority in Wales to introduce a development control initiative which will reduce the planning regulations for certain types of development in the city centre.
A Local Development Order (LDO) is now in force following a public consultation earlier this year and the approval of Welsh Government ministers.
It streamlines the planning system by granting blanket planning permission for a period of three years for non-contentious forms of development in a defined area covering some 21 hectares of the city centre.
A range of specified uses are allowed on the lower, ground and upper floors of buildings. In order to protect the retail and café functions of the city centre, the LDO is more restrictive and permits only certain changes of use in the ground-floor units of these areas.
Councillor John Richards, the council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “We believe this will have considerable benefits for the city centre by increasing occupancy levels and commercial activity.
“We are working hard to support and stimulate appropriate development to help boost the city centre’s vibrancy while protecting its character and traditional architecture.”
View the Newport City Council LDO
Ellesmere Port scheme won on appeal
A development of 2,000 dwellings proposed by developer Redrow Homes in Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port has been allowed on appeal.
The site had been allocated in the emerging development plan after the application had been submitted and contained a requirement for development to be in accordance with a development brief for the site.
Although there was no such brief the application included a comprehensive master plan which could be used to control development, the inspector holding the inquiry concluded.
Cheshire and West and Chester Council, the local planning authority, dropped its main objections to the scheme a year ago just weeks before the inquiry was held.
The outline application included retail floor space, a new primary school, community facilities, a park, playing fields and other public open space including allotments.
The developer failed in its bid to be awarded costs over the refusal when it emerged the council had approved a scheme for around 1,500 new homes at the same site after its local plan was approved.
View details of the appeal and download the decision
Go-ahead for Grimsby housing
Developer Cyden Homes’ has won its appeal to build up to 160 homes at Scartho near Grimsby originally refused by North East Lincolnshire Council. It blocked the outline scheme after raising issues over highway safety and the scheme’s impact on the village’s strategic gap.
The inspector who held the public inquiry said the impact on the strategic gap would not be as great as feared and allowed the appeal on the grounds the council’s development plan was out-of-date and the planning authority could not demonstrate a five-year supply of housing sites.
View details of the appeal and download the decision
Inspector says farmland homes can go-ahead
A planning inspector has allowed an appeal for up to 300 homes to be built on farmland in County Durham after dismissing the local planning authority’s concerns that doing so might prevent the development of brownfield sites in the area.
Durham County Council refused permission for the proposed scheme, earmarked for a site in Spennymoor, last year. The planning inspector who handled the subsequent appeal inquiry concluded the scheme’s limited harm did not outweigh its benefits.
View details of the appeal and download the decision
House of Commons reports on planning reform and right to buy
The House of Commons Library has published separate briefing notes on the Government’s current proposals for further planning reform and the administration’s plans to extend the Right to Buy in England.
Access the reports:
KPMG chairman bangs drum for affordable housing
Simon Collins UK chairman of financial services and accounting giant KPMG, has joined the calls for the Government to make the provision of affordable housing a priority.
Collins warned of the growing inaccessibility of property in major UK cities for a large part of the working population.
Collins said: “There is a widening gap between demand for housing and available supply. As well as specific help for our own people, I would like to use our convening power to help with a range of other things, including brownfield development, new sites, a carrot to encourage building and a stick to develop or let go of land banks.”
Inspector overrules Wigan Council over two housing appeals
Developers have won appeals for nearly 400 new homes on two sites at Standish, Greater Manchester originally refused by Wigan Council.
The council had turned down Persimmon and Morris Homes plans to build a further 250 houses next to the 250 they already have permission for on a former golf course site, and also refused Jones Homes plans to build 110 homes on land adjacent to Lurdin Lane and west of Chorley Road.
The inspector who considered the two appeals concluded they should be allowed because the planning authority could not demonstrate a five-year supply of housing sites as required by the National Planning Policy Framework.
View details of the appeals and download the decisions
Worcestershire wood campaign
A campaign to buy an ancient wood in Worcestershire to preserve it as a “haven for wildlife and visitors” has been successful.
The 38.5-hectare Blackhouse Wood on the Suckley Ridge near Alfrick has been bought by the county’s Wildlife Trust. The trust called it one of the county’s most “ecologically valuable” sites.
Read the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust news article
Piano parts site approved for Northamptonshire new homes
Proposals for 292 homes on the site of a factory which once made piano parts have been approved by South Northamptonshire District Council.
The Persimmon Homes’ scheme will be built on the Pianoforte Supplies site off Ashton Road in the village of Roade. The development includes provision for a local doctors’ surgery as well as land for the local football club and further land for an existing cemetery.
New Lime Street station mooted
A new railway station could be built in Liverpool city centre as part of the £35m Lime Street regeneration project.
Proposals for the station, which would be built on the site of Archbishop Blanch School on Mount Vernon Road, will be lodged with the council “by the end of the year”, mayor Joe Anderson has insisted.
The mayor said the station would be a major hub, linking into Liverpool’s local train network and complementing the existing Lime Street station.
Meanwhile, Anderson has confirmed that ministers have decided not to call-in the redevelopment for a public inquiry as requested by campaigners angry at the proposals to demolish the 100-year old former Futurist Cinema.
View the Liverpool City Council news article
Worcestershire green lights transport projects
Worcestershire County Council has given the go-head for ambitious plans for a second train station serving the city of Worcester. The landmark development will reduce pressure on the city’s two train lines and improve journey times to London.
The station will be located just outside the city close to Junction 7 of the M5 near Norton and will link the Cotswolds and Birmingham to Bristol lines. The station – set to open in autumn 2017 – will have a single platform on the Worcester-to-London line and two platforms on the Birmingham-to-Bristol line, together with a new station building and 500 car parking spaces.
View the County Council’s press release
Government to take action on pointless road signs
The Government has announced a new taskforce and consultation as part of its drive to obliterate pointless road signs.
Former Tory MP and Minister Sir Alan Duncan will head a taskforce tackling the overuse of road signs. The administration has started consulting on a range of measures including ensuring road signs that are used far longer than needed have a ‘remove by’ date.
Read the Department for Transport news story
Chilterns HS2 tunnel extension
People living in and around South Heath, Hyde Heath and Great Missenden stand to benefit from an extension to the Chilterns tunnel proposed as part of the HS2 rail project. Under this plan the deep-bored Chilterns tunnel will be extended 2.6km to a new portal just past South Heath. These new proposals would also preserve 12 hectares of woodland.
Meanwhile, Slough Council is formally opposing government plans to build a depot for Heathrow Express trains at Langley in east Berkshire. The HS2 project includes provisions to move the depot from Old Oak Common in west London to an area north east of Langley.
Read the Slough Borough Council news story
Enterprise Zone statistics published
Latest figures show the country’s 24 enterprise zones have attracted more than 19,000 jobs. That’s the figure highlighted by the administration which claimed the zones have now attracted £2.2bn of private investment and more than 500 new businesses across a range of key industries including the automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical and renewable energy sectors.
Ministers said the zones are proving popular with colleges seeking to set-up facilities and training opportunities to fill gaps in the local skills market.
View the press release and statistics
London round-up
- The ‘Walkie Talkie’ in the City Of London’s Fenchurch Street has won the 2015 Carbuncle Cup organised by Building Design magazine to find the UK’s worst building.
Read the BDOnline news article
- Westminster Council in central London has published a draft supplementary planning document (DSPD) for public consultation. The consultation, which ends on 25 September 2015, sets out guidance for the use of planning obligations. The council is currently in the process of preparing a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) draft charging schedule; the DSPD will complement this document. Once adopted, the DSPD will provide interim guidance until adoption of the city plan, the revision of which is expected to take place in 2016.
Access the consultation and view the documents
Contempt of court claim in longstanding house dispute
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has lodged a claim for contempt of court proceedings in the latest stage of its long-running battle with a farmer over a house he built hidden behind straw bales.
Warwick Castle glamping wrangle
The owners of Warwick Castle are appealing after a council rejected plans for a permanent “glamping” site in its grounds.
Merlin Entertainments Group (MEG), which runs the attraction, submitted an application last year to build 20 permanent lodges and provide space for some 41 “glamping” tents.
The district council refused the plans after claims the company was turning the attraction into a “theme park”. The planning authority had previously allowed “medieval glamorous camping” at the castle on a temporary basis.
View details of the original application
View details of the ongoing appeal
Energy round-up
- Planning permission has been granted for part of what is believed to be England’s largest onshore wind farm. Peel Energy and United Utilities want to add a further 16 turbines at Scout Moor, on land between Rochdale and Rossendale. Rossendale Borough Council gave the go-ahead for 14 of them at a meeting this week. Councillors in Rochdale are yet to determine the fate of the remaining two turbines. Government ministers have yet to decide whether the scheme should be the subject of a public inquiry.
View details of the planning application
View details of the Development Control committee meeting
- Plans to build eight new wind turbines near Leswalt in Wigtonshire in the far south-west of Scotland have been rejected by Dumfries and Galloway Council. Both the planning authority and Scottish Natural Heritage warned that the scheme proposed by Brookfield Renewable UK would have an adverse impact on a designated Regional Scenic Area.
View details of the planning application
- Proposals by oil and gas company Third Energy to drill boreholes to monitor groundwater at Kirby Misperton where it wants to frack for shale gas have been approved by North Yorkshire County Council.
View details of the planning application
View details of the Planning and regulatory functions committee meeting
Scottish planning review promised
The Scottish Government has announced it will review the operation of its planning system.
This exercise will “identify the scope for further reform with a focus on delivering a quicker, more accessible and efficient planning process, in particular increasing delivery of high-quality housing developments.”
The administration said this review would “ensure that planning realises its full potential, unlocking land and sites, supporting more quality housing across all tenures and delivering the infrastructure required to support development”.
This will involve streamlining, simplifying and improving “current systems and removing unnecessary blockages in the decision-making process.”
View the Programme for Government 2015-16
Roger Milne
Relaxed planning rules covering the construction of low cost ‘starter homes’ for local residents could be extended to rural towns and villages in England as part of plans to boost the rural economy which also include moves to make neighbourhood planning more straightforward.
Last week the Treasury and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs unveiled a package of proposals aimed at boosting rural productivity.
A key element would involve amending planning rules to allow so-called ‘starter homes’ to be built on Rural Exception Sites for the first time.
According to the policy paper, the government intends to make it easier for local areas to establish their own neighbourhood plans. They could then use these to allocate land for new homes, including starter homes on rural exception sites. The government also intends to review the existing threshold for the conversion of agricultural buildings into residential buildings.
Ministers have promised that in the current bidding round for Enterprise Zones (which closes on 18 September) preference will be given to proposals involving smaller towns, districts and rural areas.
The government has committed to a review of planning and regulatory constraints facing rural businesses. That exercise will be completed by 2016.
Ministers have also announced that a fast-track planning certificate process will be introduced for establishing the principle of development for minor development proposals.
In addition the administration has promised to improve rural transport connections, provide fairer funding for rural schools and work with private sector providers on “alternative solutions” to make broadband internet access available in the most rural areas.
Roger Milne
Proposals to build hundreds of new homes at Woodstock would harm the setting of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire’s only UNESCO World Heritage site, the UN agency’s specialist adviser has warned.
That’s the stance of the International Council on Monuments and Sites – known as Icomos – which advises UNESCO which designated Blenheim Palace a World Heritage Site in 1987.
Icomos-UK has written to Cherwell District Council which is due to determine plans for a major residential development on part of the Blenheim Estate on 1 October voicing its concern.
The scheme, known as Woodstock East, has been on the drawing board for some time and now involves plans for 1,200 new homes rather than the 1,500 originally mooted.
Pye Homes and landowner Blenheim Estates are behind the project and insist their scheme will be sustainable and help provide the income necessary for the upkeep of the palace and its grounds.
But Peter Marsden, chair of Icomos-Uk has told the planning authority that the “development would physically overpower the existing settlement [Woodstock]. Changing the character of Woodstock would further harm the setting of the World Heritage Site.”
He also raised fears about the visual impact of the development, whose closest buildings would be about a mile from the palace – the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Many local residents share the concerns voiced by Icomos-UK.
The development straddles the boundary between West Oxfordshire District Council and Cherwell District Council. The former is due to consider the proposals on 22 September.
View more information about the development on the Woodstock East website
Roger Milne
An innovative approach to protecting one of England’s most threatened amphibians could enhance their population and reduce delays to major building projects.
That’s in prospect now Natural England (NE) is due to launch a pilot project designed to make the licensing system for great crested newts easier.
The aim is to take a more strategic approach to the conservation of newts, ensuring that resources are focused on newt populations and habitat that will bring the greatest benefits to the species. At the same time it will make the licensing process much more straightforward for developers on sites where newts are found.
Under the current system, developers on sites with great crested newts are required to carry out a survey and assessment before applying to NE for a licence to move the animals before building work can begin. This process is costly and time-consuming and, because it is restricted to the active season of great crested newts, presents a real risk of development delay.
The new approach, to be trialled by NE and Woking Borough Council in Surrey this autumn, will involve survey work to establish the size, location and connectivity of local great crested newt populations.
Testing for traces of newt DNA in pond water has already been undertaken across Woking to establish where these amphibians live. This is a new survey technique.
This information will be used to produce a local conservation plan for the newts which will identify areas where development will have the least impact and specify where new habitat will be created to ensure a healthy overall population.
The council will put in place the new habitat, so that when development results in habitat loss, the habitat gains will already be in place to compensate. Where there are sites of high conservation value for great crested newts it is likely that developers will seek to avoid those areas.
NE insists that this system ought to improve the habitat legacy for great crested newts as well as reducing delays and costs to developers.
Roger Milne
A tourist destination in Northumberland, affected by flooding in 2008, is benefitting from an innovative £26m scheme which has just been completed
The Morpeth flood scheme, which opened on Monday (24 August), will protect residents by storing millions of gallons of flood water upstream – one of the largest projects of its kind built by the Environment Agency.
The Morpeth flood scheme will benefit more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the town and is the largest flood protection project completed in the North East. The upstream reservoir on the town’s Mitford Estate works by storing up to 1.4 million cubic metres of water when river levels are high – enough to fill more than 560 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In September 2008, severe and prolonged rainfall caused 1,000 properties in the town to be flooded and forced hundreds of people to evacuate.
The scheme has also created 17 hectares of new habitat for local wildlife. Some 3,500 endangered white-clawed crayfish have been relocated upstream of the River Wansbeck – one of the last places in the UK where the native species has a stronghold.
The project has been jointly delivered with Northumberland County Council, which provided £12m in funding – one of the largest partnership contributions the Environment Agency has so far secured.
Roger Milne
A new report commissioned by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) suggests local planning authorities could inadvertently be costing small house builders millions of pounds because of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges. The FSB argues these extra costs risk blocking otherwise viable housing projects.
The FSB commissioned an assessment by BCIS, the building cost information service run by professional body RICS. BCIS found that on average, smaller house building projects of 10 units or less, typical of developments run by smaller firms, had significantly higher basic building costs. The difference lifted average house building costs by 14 per cent when compared to larger developments.
BCIS claimed there was no evidence of councils making allowance for these higher costs when stipulating the CIL charge.
BCIS calculations suggested that local authorities could be overcharging smaller house builders by as much as £100,000 per project.
This added cost was a significant burden to smaller house builders, and was likely to be pushing many much-needed urban brownfield housing projects beyond viability, claimed the FSB.
FSB National Chairman John Allan urged local planning authorities to adopt a more flexible approach on CIL. “They should consider the size of the proposed project when deciding how to set the levy, and ensure small house builders aren’t overburdened with unaffordable costs” he argued.
Roger Milne
Quartermain to head PINS as Ridley moves back to DCLG
The Department for Communities and Local Government has announced that its Chief Planner Steve Quartermain is to take over as Interim Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate.
Simon Ridley, the present incumbent, is set to return to DCLG in September as Director General for Decentralisation and Local Growth.
Quartermain will take over as acting chief executive of PINS in the interim, supported by Mark Southgate, currently Director for Major Applications and Plans at the Planning Inspectorate, as Chief Operating Officer.
Ridley was appointed PINS Chief Executive 12 months ago having previously been Director of Local Government Finance at DCLG. DCLG will recruit a new PINs chief executive.
Quartermain is expected to resume his duties as the department’s chief planner once that exercise is completed. Senior DCLG colleagues of Quartermain will carry out his duties while he is working at PINs.
English housing starts up but completions down
Latest official housing statistics show an increase in the number of homes built but a slowdown in the number of starts.
Seasonally adjusted house building starts in England are estimated at 33,280 in the June quarter 2015, a 14 per cent decrease compared to the previous quarter. The seasonally adjusted level of starts in the June quarter 2015 decreased by 6 per cent on the same quarter a year earlier.
Seasonally adjusted completions are estimated at 35,640 in the June quarter 2015, four per cent higher than the previous quarter. The seasonally adjusted level of completions in the June quarter 2015 increased by 22 per cent on the same quarter a year earlier.
The figures showed there were over 131,000 completions in the last 12 months, 15 per cent higher than in the previous 12 months and at their highest annual total since June 2009.
Green light for Sussex port expansion
Expansion plans put forward by the French owners of Newhaven Port have been approved by Lewes District Council subject to agreement on conditions.
The owners want to build a new berth and slipway, and deepen a channel to upgrade facilities at the East Sussex facility. The plans involve redeveloping the East Quay by demolishing part of the East Pier structure and refurbishing the existing multi-purpose berth while also building a new multi-purpose berth and slipway at the southern end of the East Quay.
The proposals also involve dredging the existing channel leading into the harbour so bigger boats can be handled at the port. The scheme is in line with a master plan for the town which envisages a key role for an upgraded port in helping regenerate the town.
Conservationists remain concerned at the impact on shingle habitat and residents have complained the development will mean the loss of a sandy beach.
Special measures memorandum published
The Department for Communities and Local Government has formally published a memorandum setting out its criteria and justification for changing the threshold for so-called under-performing planning authorities. The criteria involve speed of decision-making and quality, measured by decisions which go to appeal and how they fare.
Originally English LPAs faced special measures when 30 per cent or more major development applications failed to be determined in the statutory time. Subsequently this was raised to 40 per cent and will now be 50 per cent.
DCLG has pointed out that so far only three planning authorities have been subject to special measures. In the case of two of them the designation has been lifted. None was designated on the basis of quality of decisions.
The department has also insisted that since the new regime came into force in 2013 there has been a significant improvement in LPA performance. District matter authorities determined 75 per cent if major applications on time during the first quarter of 2015 compared to 60 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 when the new arrangements came into force.
Referendum success for Cornish NPs
Two Cornish neighbourhood plans (NPs) reached a key milestone last week when residents were polled on the document. In the case of the Roseland Peninsula NP nearly 75 per cent of the residents who voted backed the plan. The turn-out was 40 per cent.
Meanwhile in respect of the Quethiock NP just over 88 per cent of those who responded to the ballot favoured the NP. The turnout was just over 33 percent.
Nottingham and Cambridge transport schemes
Full services on Nottingham’s new tram lines started this week. The £570m project to extend the Chilwell and Clifton lines began in March 2012 and took eight months longer than originally scheduled.
Plans for a £44m second railway station for Cambridge have been approved by the city council. The proposals include a 450 square metre station building, three platforms and bicycle and car parking.
Plans for the north city station previously submitted by Cambridgeshire County Council were given the go-ahead 18 months ago. However the project was taken over by Network Rail. It submitted its own “substantially unchanged” plans.
Energy project developments
- Ribble Valley Borough Council has approved proposals for an 11 hectare solar farm at Gisburn, Lancashire which will involve the installation of nearly 20,000 solar panels.
- North York Moors National Park Authority has approved an application for a conventional onshore gas scheme at Ebberston Moor which will involve building a 13.9 kilometre pipeline to an existing gas-fired power station at Knapton.
- A Carmarthenshire councillor who failed to declare a £25,000 payment from an energy firm before a vote on its wind farm plan has been suspended for three months.
- Scotland’s last coal-fired power station, Longannet in Fife, is to close on 31 March next year owner Scottish Power has announced. The company has also said it is abandoning plans to build a new gas-fired power station at Cockenzie in East Lothian.
- A plan to expand England’s second biggest onshore wind farm, located in the Lancashire Pennines, has been recommended for approval by officers from Rosendale Borough Council. The proposal involving an extra 16 turbines at the existing 26 turbine Scout Moor facility also requires permission from Rochdale Borough Council.
Dorset and Devon local plan moves
The planning inspector examining the draft Joint Local Plan for West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland has concluded the strategy is sound provided the planning authorities include a number of modifications consulted on earlier this year.
These include increasing the housing requirement from up to 13,220 dwellings over the plan period to a bigger total of 15,500 dwellings by 2031.
The plan highlights development on sites at Weymouth, Littlemoor, Chickerell, Bridport and Crossways. The inspector has said the councils should review the plan by 2021, looking again at the development potential of Dorchester and Sherborne.
The inspector has removed the reference to a Trunk Road Service Area as part of the park-and-ride site proposed south of Dorchester. The councils are expected to formally adopt the plan in October.
Meanwhile the final draft of the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan is being amended to reflect the revised policy on thresholds for affordable housing which has just come into force following a High Court case won by two Berkshire planning authorities against the government.
View more information about the Local Plan for West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland
View more information about the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan
Lancashire homes approved
South Ribble Borough Council has approved two planning applications totalling around 650 homes on brownfield land in Lancashire.
Bovis Homes’ proposals for around 385 dwellings at Penwortham Mills got the go-ahead as well as plans by Morris Homes and National Grid Twenty Seven for 281 homes on a former gasworks site at Lostock Hall.
Bovis secured full permission for a first phase of 181 homes and outline permission for a second phase of up to 204 dwellings. Planning officers had recommended both schemes for approval.
View more information for Penwortham Mills proposal
View more information on the Lostock Hall proposal
Affordable housing provision appeal succeeds
Broxtowe Borough Council’s refusal of a developer’s request to remove the entire affordable housing requirement from a 116-dwelling scheme at Nuthall, Nottinghamshire has been overturned by a planning inspector.
The planning authority had required 25 per cent of the housing to be affordable. The inspector used a mixture of the appellant’s and the council’s viability evidence and concluded that there was no realistic prospect of any affordable housing being viable.
Canterbury barracks makeover
Howe Barracks in Canterbury is set to become a new neighbourhood of 500 homes. As well as the green light for new housing the 30 hectare scheme includes community space and three sports pitches.
The main concern raised by councillors during the debate on the proposals was the fact that only 26 per cent of the homes will be affordable housing. The city’s local plan recommends that all new developments should include at least 35 per cent affordable housing. Officers argued the smaller figure was justified because of the development costs.
The barracks was built during the 1930s to house the Royal East Kent Regiment – known as The Buffs – and continued to be used by different army regiments until 2013, when the Ministry of Defence relinquished control of the site.
View more information on the developmen
London round-up
- New proposals for the last remaining central London section of the Mayor’s flagship East-West Cycle Superhighway have been published. The plans provide a trial two-way segregated cycle track on Spur Road, in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace, closing the last gap in the route and providing continuous fully-segregated and protected cycling across central London from Tower Hill, through Parliament Square to Hyde Park Corner and Lancaster Gate. However Transport for London is facing a judicial review challenge from black cab drivers over the construction of a section of cycling ‘superhighway’ along the Embankment on the north bank of the Thames.
- Developer Eco World Ballymore has revealed designs for a 35 metre high suspended swimming pool at Embassy Gardens part of one London’s newest neighbourhood, Nine Elms on the South Bank. The outdoor pool will link two residential buildings at the 10th storey – a world first – and allow residents to swim from one building to the next.
Legal round-up
- The property developer who illegally modernised the Grade II-listed Llanwenarth House near Abergavenny where the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful was written has been told by a judge to fork out £300,000 – or go to jail. He could also face a bill for up to £750,000 to restore it to its original state.
- A High Court judge has quashed a decision by the former Communities Secretary Sir Eric Pickles to refuse planning permission for a site where a gypsy and his family have lived since 2008. Pickles’ decision went against the recommendation of the planning inspector who considered the appeal triggered by the original refusal of Bedford Borough Council. The inspector concluded that permission should be granted for a limited period of two years. The current Communities Secretary will have to consider the case.
Plymouth enterprise zone confirmed
Ministers have confirmed that south west England will benefit from its second government-backed enterprise zone.
Plymouth’s South Yard naval dockyard has been approved as the site for a new enterprise zone that will be focused on growing the marine industry.
The site could deliver 55,000 square metres of new floor space, providing space for hundreds of new jobs and offering a unique opportunity to develop the deep water access and facilities that Plymouth is renowned for.
Milestone for coastal initiative
The government has insisted that the number of jobs, apprenticeships and training places established as a result of its Coastal Communities Fund has passed the 10,000 mark.
Over the past 3 years, the government has invested some £120m in projects across the UK to help seaside communities tap their economic potential, create business opportunities and ensure their long-term future.
Clooney CCTV consent
Hollywood A-lister George Clooney has been given permission to install 18 CCTV cameras at his £10m listed country home.
The film star and his lawyer wife Amal want to erect the cameras on poles up to 5 metres high in the grounds of their manor house in Sonning Eye, on the Oxfordshire-Berkshire border. The local parish council initially raised concerns over privacy and the CCTV system’s visual impact.
South Oxfordshire District Council said planning permission was granted as the CCTV system will not be detrimental to the special architectural and historical interest of the property
Furore over Housing minister’s expenses
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has been forced to defend the fact he has claimed Parliamentary expenses of over £30,000 for London hotel stays during the past two years. He is a Norfolk MP but has a second home in Essex. That revelation was highlighted by the Sunday Times.
View the news story on the Sunday Times website
Defibrillator conundrum
Planning permission is not needed after all to install two potentially life-saving defibrillators, Harrogate Borough Council has confirmed. A couple who raised more than £4,000 to install one device in Knaresborough and another in the spa town were originally told planning permission was required which would cost £195 for each installation.
Roger Milne
Planning authorities, predominately in the midlands and the north of England, will find themselves in the fracking front-line following this week’s announcement by the UK’s oil and gas regulator that 27 onshore blocks are being formally offered for firms to hunt for oil and gas as part of the so-called 14th licensing round. This involves shale gas exploration and the prospect of fracking.
A second group of 132 further blocks has been subjected to detailed assessment under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010, the findings of which are now out for consultation.
Subject to the outcome of that consultation, the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) will announce offers for the second group of licence blocks later in the year. The licences for all offered blocks will then be granted after the terms and conditions have been finalised.
Tens of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) fall within the oil and gas exploration blocks in England identified on Tuesday (18 August).
Energy firms like IGas, Cuadrilla and Ineos are among the companies who have been successful in winning some of the blocks announced. Igas was awarded seven areas, Cuadrilla has won two, and Ineos has also won three.
The blocks cover an area of 2,700 square kilometres. There are 53 SSSIs in the blocks, including in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and around Sheffield, according to environmental campaigners.
A “block” is an area of land, typically extending to 10 square kilometres. The licence granted under the provisions of the Petroleum Act 1998, affords exclusive rights to licensees “to search and bore for and get petroleum” in all the various stages of oil and gas operations.
The licence itself does not confer on the licensee any consent, approval or permission to carry out specified development activities – all activities, such as drilling, will necessarily require further consents, including planning permission and environmental permits.
It’s likely there will be a far larger number of SSSIs in the 132 blocks that could be offered in a second tranche of the round, including sites in North Devon, the Isle of Wight, and a large concentration in North Yorkshire.
Catherine Howard, a planning partner at international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, said: “It is no coincidence that just ahead of the award of licences, the government last week announced measures designed to overcome the delays being experienced by shale gas operators in obtaining planning permission, as well as confirming that it will legislate to ensure planning permission is deemed to have been granted (without application) for groundwater monitoring required for shale gas sites.”
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 